THE GHAZAL WE SCIENTISTS SANG AT HARVARD

"LEAVING THY LOVE, WHERE CAN WE GO?"

(Ghazal = Urdu Lyrics put to music)

I have mentioned in a post before this one that when I was at Harvard
four of us scientist "Harvardians" had got together to make an attempt
at singing. This was all due to the presence of Prof Rasul, a Professor
of Geology at Harvard who was a singer par excellence.

He taught
us this famous ghazal and the melody accompanying it and very soon it
was the "rage of the town". We were famous all over the Boston Area for
our group singing of this Urdu Ghazal ( Urdu lyrics put to music) in
"qawwaalli" style, with a throbbing rhythm accompanied by claps.. until
the time the song ended and there were only the claps of the audience as
a thunderous applause!

It was unusual for the people to see a
group of scientists and educators gathered together on the stage to sing
this sophisticated kind of "pop" music!!

I, Priya Nath Mehta,
was in Nuclear Physics, Raman Mehra was in Applied Mathematics and Kazi
Jalal in Public Health -- and of course, the group leader, Prof Rasul,
was a geologist!! We were unprofessional singers who became even more
popular than the famous Indian singers of our time -- of which there
were none in the USA at the time!! lol.

But that was a long time
ago. Today in the solitude of the Himalayan Mountains I often sing this
Ghazal alone by myself to bring back those old memories of our singing
debut at Harvard and to pay my Tribute to Prof Rasul who taught us the
Ghazal and gave us the melody. He, alas, is no more, but his ghazals
live on in my heart and soul.

I was amazed when his nephew Kazi
Jalal told me that just three days before he passed away, years ago, he
was constantly speaking of me, although years had passed by and we had
no idea where each one of us had gone...I was in his heart and soul even
as he was in mine.

Please click the link to play the video
ANJUMAN GHAZAL WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES